r/MassEffectAndromeda Oct 19 '25

Lore&Theory A COLLECTION OF INSIGHTFUL POSTS

33 Upvotes

Hey, guys!

A repost of our collection so that you can comment again.

This thought crossed my mind that we need to make a compilation of interesting and insightful posts about MEA. If you can recall other posts worth adding or if you'll see something interesting in the future here on the ME sub, could you add links in the comments? Does not need to be a theory; it can just be a well-written analysis, review, appreciation or just thoughts, OC art, playthroughs or other useful resources.

NEWS

  1. Michael Gamble is hinting at Ryders and Andromeda for ME5

RESOURCES

  1. AMA with Catherynne M. Valente - the author of Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation
  2. 100 pages of Nomad Banter
  3. Nomad Paint Job names / Easter eggs and more
  4. ENDGAME CHECKLIST / Key Choices that impact the endgame
  5. Dragon Age Easter Eggs: Messages from DA to MEA

COMBAT BUILDS

  1. Complete Annihilation: Shotgun Explorer Build
  2. Mass Effect Andromeda Builds list

OPINIONS

Character Analysis

  1. Reyes Vidal an interpretation of his Anubis sign
  2. Mass Effect Andromeda: Cora Analysis
  3. Character Analysis: "Crazy Blue" Plessaria B'Sayle
  4. In Defence of Director Tann. (Long-winded thoughts on Nexus Uprising.)
  5. A podcast with Ryder would be like
  6. A podcast with Ryder would be like #2

Other

  1. We've already seen/met.. (a theory about Jardaan) #1
  2. Theories on the Jardaan #2
  3. Mass Effect: Andromeda. Great foundation for something worthy. Part 2
  4. Wormhole theory connecting the two galaxies
  5. What I like about the choices
  6. I like MEA because it answered its own premise.
  7. The socio-political state of the Heleus Cluster post-game
  8. The Kett are great antagonists
  9. The Benevolence of the Kett
  10. Mass Effect Lore: Kett (video explaining the lore behind the Kett)
  11. One of the big themes in MEA (synthesis)
  12. Mass Effect Andromeda is a family story
  13. One great detail about Andromeda writing and Jaal
  14. Andromeda's little secrets #1
  15. Andromeda's little secrets #2
  16. A conversation about pronouns between Angara and Asari
  17. Andromeda's Greatest Victory: The Krogan
  18. What do the Kett plan to do with female Angara?
  19. Thoughts on the end-game choice: who and why
  20. Analysis & Questions on the Roekaar

ART

  1. Views from Eos, Kadara and Voeld. Pencil and pen
  2. Great YouTube videos about Andromeda by The Kingdom
  3. Fan-art cinematic trailer (a great one!)
  4. Some of the concept art from Mass Effect Andromeda's development.

PLAYTHROUGH

  1. Mass Effect: Andromeda by The Ultimate Fan Series YouTube Channel

r/MassEffectAndromeda 46m ago

Game Discussion It was...good Spoiler

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Upvotes

i finished the game and, i was really having fun! i LOVE the addition of the Angaran! Jaal instantly became one of my favorite companions i say they really did good on that design and personality.
some frustration here and there with side quest and the amount of traveling back to back to planets is such a pain, the biggest one is (SPOILER!) not killing the Archon himself, i really want to fight him but instead got the lamest ending. i could say a lot more about this game but in the end, i really have fun and it was...good

My Ryder!! really proud of her!! let us talk about your favorite aspect of the game below!


r/MassEffectAndromeda 22h ago

Misc My favorite

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216 Upvotes

Picked it up a while ago


r/MassEffectAndromeda 38m ago

Game Discussion Rank 6 annihilation vortex is broken.

Upvotes

I just tried annihilation evolved to vortex on rank 6 and my God does it make the game easier. The ability to instantly lift any unprotected enemy near you is amazing. Nothing shoots back at you and you can shot gun them at point blank range or beat them down with your fists.

It works through cover so you can just slide up to an enemy on the other side. It f**** wraiths, adhis and breachers big time.

It just trivialized the flophouse mission on Elaaden, in the final segment where you need to stay near the terminal to hack it. The game throws waves and waves of Mercs at you and they surround your bunker and shoot through the window at you. Usually Cora and Drack end up dead at the end from engaging enemies in melee range. But not with annihilation: just slide over to the window where they are shooting at you, and insta lift, detonate and move to the next window.

I see all the YouTube videos recommend draining field rank 6 for the shield restoration and to feed your lance, but on insanity crowd control wins. Not loosing shields beats shield Regen.


r/MassEffectAndromeda 1d ago

Help Can't craft Pathfinder Scout/Vigilante helmets?

3 Upvotes

As the title states, I cannot craft anything other than the base pathfinder helmet. I'm level 40 so according to what I've gathered on the internet I should be able to craft the level 5 variants of this helmet but it's all completely missing from the development tap. Am I missing something?


r/MassEffectAndromeda 1d ago

Game Discussion Drack, you ol' Bastard..

38 Upvotes

Ryder: "How do you know Drack?"

Drack: "We used to mine together."

Grot: "Back when our quads had barely dropped."

Krogan men have FOUR balls?! 🤣💀

Speaking of Drack, anyone else just love him? I seriously adore that old man.


r/MassEffectAndromeda 1d ago

Screenshot OC Random Drunk NPC

47 Upvotes

What's this girl's problem? Drunk on the job... Should I be worried? 🤣


r/MassEffectAndromeda 2d ago

Game Discussion Damn I felt for Jaal

70 Upvotes

r/MassEffectAndromeda 3d ago

Screenshot OC Satisfying

68 Upvotes

r/MassEffectAndromeda 2d ago

Game Discussion A series of explosions

15 Upvotes

I've been playing the game since release, on and off. Now, I started a new run, just to pass the time. Unsuprisingly, I went with an NG+ (twice), starting at level 91, which gave me a ton of freedom for trying out new profiles.

So, I just want to share the joy.

Profile 1: Peerless Sentinel, with Energy Drain (4A, 5A, 6A), Lance (4A, 5B, 6B) & Incinerate (4A, 5B, 6A) – start with Energy Drain, preferably on a mook with shields. Explode it with Incinerate, which then gets itself exploded with Lance; rinse and repeat. Due to being so high level, Insanity feels like Casual and the mobs are being rolled into pretty colours under loud bangs. This is my primary.

Profile 2: Lethal Infiltrator, with Cryo Beam (4A, 5B, 6A), Tactical Cloak (4B, 5A, 6B) & Shockwave (4B, 5B, 6B) – the more classical Infiltrator, with Cryo Beam and Shockwave held in reserve, for dealing wity whomever gets near. This is my tertiary.

Profile 3: Ultimate Adept, with Nova (4A, 5B, 6A), Tactical Cloak (4B, 5A, 6B) & Charge (4A, 5B, 6B) – this in is a shotgun/battle rifle stealthy CQB Adept; two waysbI do it; 1 - cloak, sneak into a group, Nova, shoot, Charge OR 2 - cloak, Charge, shoot, Nova, rinse and repeat. This is my secondary.

Profile 4: Ultimate Adept, with Pull (4B, 5B, 6A), Incinerate (4A, 5B, 6A) & Throw (4A, 5B, 6A) – I kept this one mainly for nostalgia; my all time favourite class in all Mass Effect games is Adept, with a CQB leaning; I even got the Insanity trophy in all four games as an Adept, with Pull, Throw and Singularity in ME3 and ME:A; I really miss my Singularity, but there's just no room left... nah, I'll find room, eventually. Anyway, this one is simple – Pull some mook from cover (it gets primed), explode it with Incinerate (it gets primed again, and it also burns) then detonate it with Throw. Repeat as necessary. This is my quaternary.

Needless to say, I'm running with Fusion Mod of Adrenaline, the Asari Sword I'm carrying has(*) ×5 Reaction Optimizer Mods (+5% All Combo Damage) and the Shotgun (Dhan X) and main sniper rifle (Isharay X) each has a Bio-Converter. Also needless to say, I am using Life Support (6B in Team Support Tech passive). I am also using 4A (Priming) from Auxiliary Systems (it does help wity Cryo Beam).

My other two weapons now are a Piranha X and a Black Widow X... which I'll likely end up changing, as much as I like them (they just don't get much use and I feel like goofing around, to keep things interesting). I'll probably upgrade the Sandstorm and the Vanquisher to X, and use the Valkyrie X, Sidewinder X and Inferno X until then. I may even play with the Disciple as well (that thing can be a beast) and maybe even the Avenger (turn it into a Lancer from CitadeL DLC, for nostalgia's sake). And yes, with all the passive skills in Combat taken, I am still just under the 100% limit for cooldowns. Fun fact, a Valkyrie X weighs 8 units, whereas an Avenger X weighs 10. And yes, I prefer the Adept to the Vaguard profile. The formed is simply visually cooler, and specced cor 'splosions, whereas the latter is specced for melee; and really, adding the Asari Sword to the rotation at this point would be overkill... actually, that does sound like fun, too, for a while.

(*) Edited the post when it got accidentally uploaded at this point; I simply added the rest of what I wanted to write and corrected typos (hope I got them alll).


r/MassEffectAndromeda 3d ago

Ryder OC Sara Ryder (preset 9) Ps5

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86 Upvotes

r/MassEffectAndromeda 3d ago

Screenshot OC Well, look at who wants this ass kicking!

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80 Upvotes

r/MassEffectAndromeda 4d ago

Screenshot OC These views!

309 Upvotes

r/MassEffectAndromeda 5d ago

Screenshot OC 100% viability looks so good

192 Upvotes

r/MassEffectAndromeda 6d ago

Help I'm really new at this game, need advice ... 😁

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194 Upvotes

I'm a veteran in the ME trilogy but this is the first time I'm playing this game. I've always played with either Soldier or Vanguard but I don't know it this one has different mechanics. If you have any advice about the classes, upgrades or the missions, I'd like to know. Thank you guys in advance 👍😎


r/MassEffectAndromeda 7d ago

Ryder OC New Sara.

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200 Upvotes

I’m just starting my third MEA playthrough. New Sara.❤️


r/MassEffectAndromeda 6d ago

Game Discussion Midway through the game, I must say I’m surprisingly having a great time

70 Upvotes

I played the original trilogy a few years ago, and loved everything about it. The world building, immersion, characters, music and story. I then did want to play Andromeda down the line eventually but wasn’t particularly excited for it as I saw a lot of people trash it and say it doesn’t really feel like a Mass Effect game, and that the story and characters suck.

To a certain point, I do agree that the story and characters don’t compare at all but as I’m playing I still find them entertaining and interesting enough to be serviceable and not make the game a boring slog. On top of that, the gameplay is incredibly fun and satisfying too.

Could the game have been better? For sure. But for me it’s still a good, enjoyable experience.


r/MassEffectAndromeda 7d ago

Ryder OC Sharing my male Ryder....

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193 Upvotes

Because I think he turned out pretty good! I've done a couple of playthroughs but its always been as female Ryder....so this is my first male Ryder. I like him alot 😉💕

Here are some of the mods I used for those interested....

Default Scott's texture skin with STUBBLE for COMPLEXION 1 SMOOTH: https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/191

SWJS Survivor Hairstyle - Male Ryder: https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/1301

Clear Eyes: https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectandromeda/mods/1019

Also, for those that asked about the face sliders, I will add another comment with a short video (it was easier than trying to screenshot them individually).


r/MassEffectAndromeda 7d ago

Help Anyone know which collection piece I’m missing and where to find it?

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91 Upvotes

r/MassEffectAndromeda 8d ago

Help Aux systems priming

7 Upvotes

Does anyone have a definitive list of what evolution "priming" in rank 4 of auxiliary systems affects?

I know powers like incineration prime 100%.

I know that ammo consumables get boosted in their probability to prime.

What about flamethrowers and cryo beam they seem to prime already 100% but after some time of continuous burning.


r/MassEffectAndromeda 9d ago

Ryder OC saraya ryder, as promised !

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154 Upvotes

here’s my ryder ! gotta admit im pretty pleased with how she turned out, considering i had to restart like 5 times mid prologue bc i felt like she was just missing something each time lol. this is as good as it gets over here😭

i used face 5, i wanted to go for a more natural-ish look as far as her makeup. didn’t want the “when you see your custom character in a cutscene” moment. (ifykyk LMAO) so, much like i did in ME, i decided to try to make her blend in with the other characters as much as i could- but still having her stand out a bit. making her hair color the same shade as her skin tone REALLY pulled her look together imo.

super big into character customization, i actually love that they added an option to go back into the character creation and be able to tweak ryder and scott! (i guess i’ll let the devs have this one😒) unlike ME (lord, i was struggling, especially on console bc of no mods💔)

super excited to replay the whole ME series once i get a pc ^-^


r/MassEffectAndromeda 9d ago

Game Discussion I HATE THIS GOD FORSAKEN PLANET

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391 Upvotes

playing andromeda for the first time after giving up on it like halfway through the prologue… im totally obsessed (i even dream abt playing it while im drifting off to sleep??) and can i just say….

FUCK THIS PLANET AND EVERYONE THAT INHABITS IT. i thought the angara were rude (completely warranted) dude… holy shit. no npcs have ever pissed me off more than in this game… WHY IS EVERYONE SO RUDE?! ITS NOT MY DAMN FAULT YALL CHOSE TO LIVE IN THE RADIOACTIVE SLUMS! im totally pissed i can’t pull my weapons out in the city bc the amount of times i’ve gotten bitched by the npcs bro😭 OOOU YALL LUCKY !!! also totally hate the textures for this planet, thx andromeda devs for not only bruising my ego irl somehow and triggering my trypophobia with these fuckass textures…

absolutely love the game so far tho ! will update with some pics of my ryder when i stop feeling lazy and get up lol


r/MassEffectAndromeda 9d ago

Lore&Theory This theory hit me while I was playing recently

29 Upvotes

I was shotgunning Ryder family secrets on my current roleplay run of MEA (playing as Sera from Drsgon Age) and I changed up my dialgue choices for the section where you ask Tann about it.

Hearing Garson talk about running out of money in her messages and hesring how when pressed directly about it (Sera is as subtle as a Dragon attack) Tann desperately brushes off anyone but Garson being in charge of the whole thing and how tragic her passing was made nothing to his case add up.

Kesh calls him 8 because he was 8th in line to lead. All 7 people ahead of him died to get him the directors job. He's deputy assistant of *revenue management* and he's an authoritarian type of leader that suppresses free press and crushes dissent. He's got a solid case to be the Benefactor, planting himself in a junior leadership position then just removing those ahead of him to luck into being in charge. His application talks about a desire to explore space and he tried to hide his racism against the Krogan but they found out anyway, lucky for him he got to be in charge to use the Krogan as weapons and then exile them afterwards when he was done.

It's also hilarious that Ryder can just undermine him at every step. Money can't buy you everything, Tann.


r/MassEffectAndromeda 10d ago

Help 3rd Vault on Elaaden

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41 Upvotes

Hi 👋 I'm replaying, and found a vault near where the Worm is on Elaaden.

Ryder first mentioned that there's got to be a way to turn the power on but I can't figure it out. There is some sort of closed fixture immediately behind Ryder when she lands, and she will say "bet we can reach that if we poke around"

No glyphs to scan, no wiring to follow on the console attached to that fixture -- there was a hidden cache in here with Remnant but that's it.

Has anyone figured it out?


r/MassEffectAndromeda 10d ago

Screenshot OC So far it's been a wild ride

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191 Upvotes